This book charts contemporary developments in counter-extremism within the UK education sector. Set against the background of the controversial Prevent strategy the book focuses on the expansion of counter‐extremism into education and draws on key legislation such as the Counter Terrorism and Security Act (2015) that imposed a statutory counter-extremism duty on public sector workers in the UK. The authors provide a wide-ranging critique that draws on theories of surveillance and power, an international review of counter‐extremism educational initiatives and a series of interviews with UK lecturers. Terrorism in the Classroom highlights the problems that occur when counter-extremism becomes an objective of education and a part of the curriculum, as well as the anxiety that is felt by educators who have been deputised into the role of counter-extremism practitioners. It will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines, including Criminology, International Relations, Politics and Education.

"Armed Islamist groups allied with Al Qaeda and the Islamic State began attacking teachers and schools in Burkina Faso in 2017, citing their opposition to 'French' education and government institutions .... [This report] documents scores of attacks by armed Islamist groups on teachers, students, and schools in six regions of Burkina Faso between 2017 and 2020. The groups have killed, assaulted, abducted, and threatened education professionals; intimidated students; terrorized parents into keeping children out of school; and damaged, destroyed and looted schools. The report also documents schools used by government security forces and armed groups for military purposes."--Page 4 of cover.

The Oklahoma City bombing, intentional crashing of airliners on September 11, 2001, and anthrax attacks in the fall of 2001 have made Americans acutely aware of the impacts of terrorism. These events and continued threats of terrorism have raised questions about the impact on the psychological health of the nation and how well the public health infrastructure is able to meet the psychological needs that will likely result. Preparing for the Psychological Consequences of Terrorism highlights some of the critical issues in responding to the psychological needs that result from terrorism and provides possible options for intervention. The committee offers an example for a public health strategy that may serve as a base from which plans to prevent and respond to the psychological consequences of a variety of terrorism events can be formulated. The report includes recommendations for the training and education of service providers, ensuring appropriate guidelines for the protection of service providers, and developing public health surveillance for preevent, event, and postevent factors related to psychological consequences.

The terrorist attacks in the USA and UK on 9/11 and 7/7, and subsequent media coverage, have resulted in a heightened awareness of extremists and terrorists. Should educators be exploring terrorism and extremism within their classrooms? If so, what should they be teaching, and how? Dianne Gereluk draws together the diverging opinions surrounding these debates, exploring and critiquing the justifications used for why these issues should be addressed in schools. She goes on to consider the ways in which educators should teach these topics, providing practical suggestions. Education, Extremism and Terrorism is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate education students looking to engage with the philosophical, sociological and political issues that are central to this debate.

Education and Extremisms addresses one of the most pressing questions facing societies today: how is education to respond to the challenge of extremism? It argues that the implementation of new teaching techniques, curricular reforms or top-down changes to education policy alone cannot solve the problem of extremism in educational establishments across the world. Instead, the authors of this thought-provoking volume argue that there is a need for those concerned with radicalisation to reconsider the relationship between instrumentalist ideologies shaping education and the multiple forms of extremisms that exist. Beginning with a detailed discussion of the complicated and contested nature of different forms of extremism, including extremism of both a religious and secular nature, the authors show that common assumptions in contemporary discourses on education and extremism are problematic. Chapters in the book provide a careful selection of pertinent and topical case studies, policy analysis and insightful critique of extremist discourses. Taken together, the chapters in the book make a powerful case for re-engaging with liberal education in order to foster values of individual and social enrichment, intellectual freedom, criticality, open-mindedness, flexibility and reflection as antidotes to extremist ideologies. Recognising recent criticisms of liberalism and liberal education, the authors argue for a new understanding of liberal education that is suitable for multicultural societies in a rapidly globalising world. This book is essential reading for academics, researchers and postgraduate students with an interest in religion, citizenship education, liberalism, secularism, counter-terrorism, social policy, Muslim education, youth studies and extremism. It is also relevant to teacher educators, teachers and policymakers.

The Terrorism Lectures, 2nd Edition, is a collection of timely and engaging lessons directly from the classroom of terrorism expert James J. F. Forest. The book and accompanying online materials delve into the history of terrorism, its root causes, its many forms and organizations, as well as the frameworks that analysts use to determine the scope of terrorist threats.

An intimate cross-country look at the new debate over religion in the public schools A suburban Boston school unwittingly started a firestorm of controversy over a sixth-grade field trip. The class was visiting a mosque to learn about world religions when a handful of boys, unnoticed by their teachers, joined the line of worshippers and acted out the motions of the Muslim call to prayer. A video of the prayer went viral with the title “Wellesley, Massachusetts Public School Students Learn to Pray to Allah.” Charges flew that the school exposed the children to Muslims who intended to convert American schoolchildren. Wellesley school officials defended the course, but also acknowledged the delicate dance teachers must perform when dealing with religion in the classroom. Courts long ago banned public school teachers from preaching of any kind. But the question remains: How much should schools teach about the world’s religions? Answering that question in recent decades has pitted schools against their communities. Veteran education journalist Linda K. Wertheimer spent months with that class, and traveled to other communities around the nation, listening to voices on all sides of the controversy, including those of clergy, teachers, children, and parents who are Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Sikh, or atheist. In Lumberton, Texas, nearly a hundred people filled a school-board meeting to protest a teacher’s dress-up exercise that allowed freshman girls to try on a burka as part of a lesson on Islam. In Wichita, Kansas, a Messianic Jewish family’s opposition to a bulletin-board display about Islam in an elementary school led to such upheaval that the school had to hire extra security. Across the country, parents have requested that their children be excused from lessons on Hinduism and Judaism out of fear they will shy away from their own faiths. But in Modesto, a city in the heart of California’s Bible Belt, teachers have avoided problems since 2000, when the school system began requiring all high school freshmen to take a world religions course. Students receive comprehensive lessons on the three major world religions, as well as on Sikhism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and often Shintoism, Taoism, and Confucianism. One Pentecostal Christian girl, terrified by “idols,” including a six-inch gold Buddha, learned to be comfortable with other students’ beliefs. Wertheimer’s fascinating investigation, which includes a return to her rural Ohio school, which once ran weekly Christian Bible classes, reveals a public education system struggling to find the right path forward and offers a promising roadmap for raising a new generation of religiously literate Americans.